Virtual School

What is Virtual School

Virtual school is an additional MIS which is designed to enable multiple schools to work as a single entity with respect to their Sixth forms. All timetables and associated entities are produced and managed centrally, cascading to each partner school reducing clashes and duplication, often encountered when schools work in collaboration. Additional features for the most common functions of attendance, behaviour, assessment and examinations can be harmonised through Virtual school, reducing the overall administrative burden of collating and disseminating data from across partners.

Key Features

  • Single centralised allocation and management of timetabled groups
  • Schools produce the timetable as normal based on their own period structure which is mapped to the central academic structure
  • Schools decide which students and subject classes are offered to Virtual school
  • Synchronised data flows to and from school to Virtual school
  • Transfer of attendance, behaviour and assessment data
  • Centralised reporting
  • Exam management process
  • Student Portal management
  • Reporting through MCAS

Features and Benefits

FeatureWhat it DoesBenefits
Centralised timetable managementSchools create their timetable as normal. They put selected teaching groups and selected students at the disposal of Virtual schoolExcept “outplaced” teaching groups, partner schools retain full control over their timetable
All students are assigned to their teaching groups at Virtual school level
Students have a single timetable covering all schools they attend
Teaching staff can be allocated across schools
Single point timetable management for handling clashes
All Timetable changes are made at virtual level and pushed out to partner schools
Post-16 learning aims are managed at virtual school level to ensure accuracy for census returns 
Academic period mappingCollaborating schools may have varying period structures. Virtual school accommodates multiple structures and turns them into a single structureSchools can maintain their own period structure for lower school, but which can be converted into a Sixth form structure for timetable purposes
The Virtual school period structure creates a standardised structure
There is no need to create duplication in partner schools’ timetables to accommodate other centres
Students have a single timetable
Staff have a single timetable
Offering Students and Teaching GroupsPartner schools place students and teaching groups at the disposal of the Virtual schoolIndividual schools retain control of which students are “outplaced” to the virtual school
Partner schools maintain school level data
Synchronised data flowData is transferred to and from Virtual school to keep data up to datePartner schools decide how often data is transferred
Partner school retains control over their students
Where students travel to another partner school, the student will appear on its roll as a guest
Student transfer from one partner school to another can be managed without CTF files
Attendance flowAttendance can be transferred to and from the Virtual schoolRegisters can be taken for students in the normal way without duplication at individual partner schools 
Behaviour managementA single model deployed at Virtual school can be imported at partner schools to produce consistent reporting across the clusterStandardised behaviour modelling allows accurate behaviour analysis
Staff travelling from one school to another will use the same events
Analysis can be done in a single place with no need to collate data from other schools for an individual student.
Assessment managementCreating an assessment model at Virtual school level enables partner schools to use the same assessment modelPartner schools follow the same template structures for consistency of output
Reporting can be done centrally
Analysis is uniform for all students
Exam managementSchools can be identified by their home school detailsEase of clash resolution
Students are identified by their home centre for ease of exam management
Entries could be managed centrally and distributed to partner schools
Results transfer to Virtual school for analysis
Centralised ReportingAll outplaced general student data is stored both at partner and virtual schools. Shared data from other centres is produced at virtual school level. Reporting is therefore carried out at virtual school levelFull Attendance and Behaviour reporting is available by student
Assessment reporting and analysis for students is done in a central location 
Student PortalStudent portal is used to create accounts for Post-16 student at virtual level giving students access to their own data across schools.Student timetables are kept up to date in a single location thus avoiding the need produce separate timetables
Key data available to students from across partners
6th form homework can be set at virtual level and be made available for students to submit in the normal way
MCASSixth form Virtual school has the same MCAS functionality as an ordinary schoolVirtual school is available for communication with parents/carers from a single source